- Scopitone
Scopitone is a type of
jukebox featuring a16 mm film component. It was a forerunner ofmusic video . The Italian Cinebox/Coilorama and Color-Sonics were competing, lesser-known technologies of the time [ [http://www.scopitonearchive.com/cinebox/index.html Cinebox/Colorama Films, ScopitoneArchive.com] ] .Based on technology developed during World War II [ [http://www.stim.com/Stim-x/9.4/scopitone/scopitone-09.4.html History of the Scopitone] ] , color 16 mm film clips with a magnetic
soundtrack were designed to be shown in a specially designed jukebox. The first Scopitones were made in France, among themSerge Gainsbourg 's "Le poinçonneur des Lilas " (filmed in 1958 in the Porte des Lilas Métro station) [ [http://www.forumdesimages.net/fr/alacarte/htm/ACTUALITE/GAINSBOURG.htm Serge Gainsbourg] Article on "Forum des Images", February 2003 (in French)] ,Johnny Hallyday 's "Noir c'est noir" (a cover ofLos Bravos ' "Black is Black") and the "Hully Gully " showing a dance around the edge of a French swimming pool.Scopitones spread to
West Germany , where the Kessler Sisters burst out of twin steamer trunks to sing "Quando Quando " on the dim screen that surmounted the jukebox. Scopitone went on appear in bars inEngland . By 1964, approximately 500 machines were installed in the USA, acccording to Time magazine. [ David Galassie: [http://www.loti.com/fifties_jukebox/Scoptione_The_Visual_Jukebox.htm Scoptione - The Visual Jukebox] . loti.com, accessed 6 September 2008]Several well-known acts of the 1960s appear in Scopitone films, ranging from
Dick and Dee Dee ("Where Did All the Good Times Go") toProcol Harum ("A Whiter Shade of Pale "). In one Scopitone recording,Dionne Warwick lay on a white shag rug with an offstage fan urging her to sing "Walk on By ". Inspired byburlesque , blonde bombshellJoi Lansing performed "Web of Love" and "The Silencer", andJulie London sang "Daddy" against a backdrop of strippers [ [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Vt-xeVrI3c] ] . The artifice of such scenes ledSusan Sontag to identify Scopitone films as "part of the canon of Camp" in her 1964 essay "Notes on 'Camp' ".By the end of the 1960s, the popularity of the Scopitone had faded. The last film for a Scopitone was made at the end of 1978. As of the mid-2000s, one of the only public Scopitones in the United States was located at the Belcourt Theatre in
Nashville, Tennessee [ [http://www.nashvillecitypaper.com/news.php?viewStory=43623 Moss, Wil . "Belcourt hosts music video jukebox"] , "Nashville City Paper ", n.d.] .The 2002 movie "
Punch Drunk Love " features imagery described asFact|date=May 2008 "Scopitones", but which are not actual Scopitone films and do not use the Scopitone Jukebox.Footnotes
References
* [http://www.scopitonearchive.com/ Scopitone archive]
* [http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5630027 NPR: Rise and Fall of the Scopitone Jukebox]
* David Galassie: [http://www.loti.com/fifties_jukebox/Scoptione_The_Visual_Jukebox.htm Scopitone: The Visual Jukebox] loti.comExternal links
* [http://www.scopitones.blogs.com/ Scopitone of the day]
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